Los Alamos Waste Ok'd for Transport

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Wednesday December 2 10:47 PM ET 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A shipment of waste at Los Alamos 
National Laboratory does not contain hazardous chemicals and 
can be taken to a new nuclear waste repository without a state 
permit, a state agency said Wednesday.  

The announcement by the New Mexico Environment Department 
moves the process of getting the first shipment to the $1.8 billion 
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant one step closer.  

But transporting the material to the plant is still dependent upon 
the actions of a federal judge in Washington, Department of Energy 
spokeswoman Tracy Loughead said. She said the earliest the 
waste could move to the plant would probably be February.  

The waste consists of 116 drums of material that was 
contaminated with plutonium during nuclear weapons research. It 
includes plastics, rubber, rags, glass and metal.  

The state agency had worried that material in the 116 drums might 
include hazardous chemical waste, which would have required a 
state permit. The Engergy Department presented test results, 
which found the material free of hazardous chemicals, on Nov. 16.  

The decision Wednesday affects only a small portion of the waste 
at Los Alamos that is destined for the plant. The agency has said it 
expects to issue a hazardous waste permit to the plant in June.  

Attorney General Tom Udall and several anti-nuclear groups have 
petitioned a federal judge in Washinton to block movement of the 
waste because of the lack of a state permit. In August, the judge 
delayed a hearing on the petition, pending the tests and the state's 
approval for the 116 drums.  

The plant is designed to bury plutonium-contaminated waste from 
the nation's defense industry 2,150 feet underground in
ancient salt beds 26 miles east of Carlsbad. 



------------------------
Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

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